Learning Objectives

1. Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of accurate drawing skills using graphite.
2. Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of value, movement, contrast, and form through drawing

Materials

• Graphite
• White paper
• Kneaded eraser
• White plastic eraser

Sketchbook

Steps:
1. Watch the video below
2.. Set up fabric on a flat surface. Fold the fabric and create an interesting composition with the fabric
3. Lightly sketch the fabric on the whole sheet of sketchbook paper
4. Add values to the drawing that represent a broad range. Refer to your value scale that you created. 
5. Use an eraser to grab light values
6. Edit and correct your drawing

Project

Create a detailed, full value, proportional drawing of hanging cloth on white paper with graphite, capturing the direction of the light source and emphasizing three dimensional form.

Part 1 – In your sketchbook, create a least 5 gestural studies to work out composition. Remember to keep the focal point out of the center and use the folds and value contrasts in the fabric to draw the viewer’s eye around the composition.

Part 2 – Using your most successful composition, gesture out that composition on the large 18″ by 24″ sheet of white paper. Use graphite to complete your drawing, paying close attention to lights and darks. Make sure to step back from your drawing to make decisions about contrast and value. Think about the background and how you could use a darker value to help bring the fabric to the foreground.

Research

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Students will show proficiency with graphite as a medium.
Students will explore abstraction using previously created imagery.
Students will demonstrate competency with compositional arrangement.

MATERIALS

1 Old drawing from your portfolio, Vine Charcoal, Compressed charcoal, 1 sheet of drawing paper, chamois, scissors, erasers, etc…

INSTRUCTIONS

1. IN CLASS:  Begin by cutting or tearing your drawing into 4-6 sections of various shapes and sizes.

2. IN CLASS:  Exchange 1 piece of your drawing with the person on your left.  Exchange another piece of your drawing with the person on your right.

3. Spend time arranging and rearranging the cut/torn sections into a new composition that is approximately the same size as your original drawings.  Experiment with overlapping, cutting the sections into smaller sizes, etc…Record your variety of arrangements in a series of 5-10 small sketches on newsprint paper.

4. Once you have reached an interesting composition tape the torn elements together and begin transferring (re-drawing) your composition lightly onto a new sheet of drawing paper. 

5. From this new sketch develop a finished drawing that incorporates a dynamic use of line weight, eraser marks and use of value through the use of your compressed charcoal. 

Materials

Potted Plant, 3 simple geometric shaped objects (cylindrical & box), Viewfinder, sighting stick, vine charcoal, charcoal pencils, erasers, (2) sheets of18”x24” drawing paper

Assignment objectives & description

For this assignment you will create 2 contour line drawings in charcoal (1 open form & 1 closed form composition).  Your subject matter will be your plant and a small arrangement of 3 geometric objects (3 is minimum). 

Each drawing should illustrate a sensitive use of line weight to enhance the illusion of depth (i.e. forms closer to you will use progressively heavier/darker lines and forms farther away will use progressively lighter lines).   DO NOT INCORPORATE ANY SHADING!

In the open form composition, the edges of your plant and geometric objects will be severely cropped off all 4 sides of your page. Use the viewfinder to look for interesting compositional elements and passageways through in this cropped view. 

In contrast, your closed form composition should utilize a comfortable amount of space around the entire grouping of your plant & geometric object forms. 

Example of a similar project using shoes:

Student Drawing                                               Student Drawing
(Closed Form)                                                    (Open Form)

Learning Objectives

1. Students will demonstrate the ability to use research to help explore creative concepts.
2. Students will be able to expand their creative development.

Materials

Use any medium or combination of media: collage, charcoal, pencils, conte, pen and ink, wash, ballpoint, colored pencils, chalk pastels, oil sticks…

Sketchbook Mini-Assignments

1. Work and research. Include your research in your sketchbook.
2. Read Top artists reveal how to find creative inspiration (theguardian).

Project

Explore a theme in 20 drawings through 1’x1’ drawings of a theme of your choice, done from observation. Explore expression, composition, space, tone, line, texture, shapes, light, color, surface, media, distortion, marks, gestures, approaches, styles, moods, techniques, strategies, processes, concepts, etc.

This series is designed to address the importance of drawing as a record of seeing, understanding, and responding to one’s experience of looking. The commitment to visual literacy is manifest in the innovation and exploration of a variety of media and mark-making and their structural and expressive roles. What interests you? What boils in your belly? What gives you a thrill and brings meaning to your work? What are your obsessions? As you explore a wide range of issues and concepts in your critical thinking, art theory, and studio classes what do you find out about yourself? What insights have you gained about your role as an artist in the greater social and cultural context?

Research

War: Fransisco de Goya, Otto Dix, Kathe Kollwitz, George Grosz, Jacques Louis David

Self-portrait: Egon Schiele, Frida Kahlo, Max Beckmann, Philip Akkerman, Suzanna Coffey

Bathers: Pierre Bonnard, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Graham Nickson

The Nude: Lucian Freud, Jenny Saville, Paula Rego, Euan Uglow, Modigliani, Alan Feltus, John Currin, Eric Fishl, Philip Pearlstein

Still life: Georgio Morandi, William Bailey, Janet Fish, Jim Dine, Claudio Bravo

Narrative: Balthus, Munch, Ensor, Jerome Witkin, Leon Golub, Jack Malczewski, Stanley Spencer

Landscape: Rackstraw Downes, Wayne Thibeau, George Nick, John Moore

Check the work of Barry Nemett.

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to demonstrate drawing skills acquired in the previous Drawing 1 course. Students will demonstrate their ability to accurately render objects from life, focusing on scale, proportion, value and line. Students will be able to accurately render the objects before them from the correct angle.

Materials

18 x 24 inches white paper
Charcoal, Conte or Graphite
Eraser
Drawing Board
Clips
Viewfinder

Homework

See Calendar

Process

Students should place their easels around the still life so that every angle is covered. Using a white sheet of paper and the drawing media of your choice (charcoal, conte or graphite) recreate what you see. Pay close attention to the relationship of objects to each other. Check proportion and scale for accuracy. Pay close attention to shading and contrast. Back up if you need to to better see what you are drawing.

This drawing should be rendered as much as possible within the given amount of time. Start with your gesture first to work out proportions. Follow with adjustments, shading and details.

The drawings will be displayed as a group sculpture, recreating the still life in 3 dimensions.

Learning Objectives

• Students will be able to demonstrate an awareness of their other senses, in particular the sense of touch, through exploring the variety of pressures applied to drawing tools, and the emphasized awareness of arm, hand and finger movements while drawing.
• Students will be able to become aware of one’s own body in relation to drawing.
• Students will be able to become sensitized to the physicality of drawing mediums and to the physical variations of the layers in a drawing.
• Students should be open to allowing chance to take place and letting unexpected accidents to happen.
• Students will demonstrate an understanding of the possibility for intuition and instincts to play a greater role in the drawing process.

Project Description

Materials

• Some sort of blindfold
• 2 sheets of white or off-white paper, 18 x 24 inches minimum in size
• 3-4 sheets of heavy duty paper or cardboard
• Chalk or oil pastels (preferably oil pastel – if using oil pastel you will need something to scrape and scratch the oil pastel away)
• Charcoal
• Rubber Eraser for subtracting chalk pastel, charcoal, chalk line dust, or graphite powder.
• Pencils, markers, and colored pencils
• At least 15 Stencils and Templates
• (Optional) Chalk line dust or graphite powder – if you use either of these mediums bring a dust mask.

Directions

Read through the assignment before class and answer these questions in your sketchbook.

• How do our senses help define the world we live in?
• How might one of our senses allow us to know something about a place, object, etc more or less than another of our senses?
• Watch the video below on Chance and Randomness and take notes in your sketchbook. What was Dada?
• Read Robert Morris’s Blind Time Drawings (Began series in the 1970’s) and bring a printed copy to class. You may also want to look over some of the work here.

You will be creating two drawings. The first drawing will be done with your stencils but blindfolded. The second drawing will also be done with the stencils but you will not be blindfolded. Focus on the way the shapes and stencils feel in your hand. Notice the differences between the sighted drawing and the blind drawing. The blind drawings are usually much more energetic, partly because you don’t know for certain what you are doing but also because you are making aesthetic judgments on your drawings. You are allowing yourself to just draw.

Using heavy-duty paper, create an assortment of stencils and templates of various sizes and shapes. Some of the stencils/templates should be considerably larger than your hand while others may be same size or smaller than your hand.

To make stencils: cut out (or tear) shapes in materials such as paper and or cardboard (the shaped hole in the material is the stencil, the shape removed from the material to create the shaped hole is the template). Geometric shapes may include squares, rectangles, circles and triangles and a combination of those shapes. Organic shapes may include blob shapes and/or bean shapes and/or asymmetrical clover shapes. Or you may find some ready made stencils or templates that are abstract. The more ambiguous and abstract the stencil the more successful your drawing will be in reaching the assignment objectives.

As you draw blind folded you will feel each cut out stencil and template to trace and layer shapes in your drawing using an additive and subtractive process. You may place a stencil down and fill it in, place a different stencil on top and erase it out. Don’t be afraid to go all the way to the edge of your sheet of paper as you work. No peeking through your blindfold!

Research / Examples

Learning Objectives

1. Develop observational, compositional and conceptual problem-solving skills
2. Demonstrate proficiency in the use of basic drawing media
3. Demonstrate various drawing techniques
4. Demonstrate the ability to critically assess works of visual art
5. Demonstrate appropriate methods of presenting their finished work
6. Demonstrate excellent time management and work ethic

Project Description

Students will start with a gesture drawing to refresh what they learned from the previous class.  I will go over the difference between a gesture (quick, mass, movement) and a contour (detail, slow, focused).  Students will complete several contour drawings of their hands in various positions as well as a few blind contours to demonstrate the idea of hand eye coordination.

For the major portion of the project you will be completing 2 contour drawings in sharpie on white paper.

Project Considerations

Unlike a gesture drawing’s quick and intuitive process, contour drawings are slow and methodical. Contour drawings reinforce our hand eye coordination, much like playing video games.

Contour drawings can be frustrating because they are painstakingly slow, but the goal is to force us to slow down and really look at the objects we are drawing. Too often we draw the idea of a tree or the idea of a chair instead of the tree or chair that is in front of us. Contour drawings force us to focus on the specifics of the object in front of us.

A couple of tips – Take your time and enjoy the process. It is ok if you mess up; this assignment is about training out hands to coordinate with our eyes and it is hard. The more you practice, the better you will get.

Materials

• Sketchbook
• 2 sheets of 18” x 24” White Drawing Paper
• Dual Fine and Ultra Fine Tip Sharpie Marker
• Pencil
• Still life objects

Directions

1. 5 gesture drawings of your chosen objects in your sketchbook (make sure to use a view finder so you can focus on good composition). You need at least 5 different compositions. You may need more depending on the composition.
2. 5 contour drawings of your hands and / or feet in your sketchbook.

For this assignment, you need to create 2 contour drawings. Using at least 5 still life objects, create 8 different compositions and sketch these compositions in your sketchbook. I will help you select the 3 best compositions. Remember to think about where your eyes are moving through the image. Are you stuck in the center, or are you creating enough focal points to allow the viewer to find interest throughout your drawing without creating the “kudzu” effect?

Once you have your good compositions selected, reset up your tool still life for each one.  Gesture the tools onto your large sheets of paper with a pencil, paying close attention to composition and technical accuracy.  Once these are gestured out you can start with contour drawings.  DO NOT TRACE YOUR GESTURE. DRAW FROM THE STILL LIFE; USE YOUR GESTURE ONLY AS A REFERENCE.  Create this drawing using a fine tipped Sharpie marker.  The drawing created on watercolor paper will be used for a value study assignment later in the semester.  The drawing on watercolor paper should be the best out of the three.

Remember…do not lift your pen when you start your contour.  Your eyes, along with your pen should visually trace the object.  It’s ok if you get out of proportion.  The goal of this assignment is to train yourself to focus on the details.  If you choose a hammer, draw THAT hammer, not your understanding or mental image of a hammer.  Draw that specific hammer with all its flaws and distinct characteristics.

Examples / Research:

Jim Dine
Cy Twombly

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to produce a cohesive work of art from a variety of source materials using different types of media. Students will be able to demonstrate competency in how they use their chosen media and in the arrangement of their composition.

Materials

3′ x 4′ masonite or panel board (3/16″ thick)
Your choice of – Colored Pencils, Colored Markers, Colored Inks, Oil and/or Chalk Pastels, Acrylic or Watercolor as a base for other drawing materials, Graphite

Homework

Research Surrealism
Work in Sketchbook

Process

Complete one large drawing (3 x 4 feet minimum) with numerous small studies/preliminary works. This assignment is in many ways about trying to combine (and or collage) as many types of styles, images and sensibilities as possible but in a unified manner that is both complex and unique. These styles, images and sensibilities should come from a variety of cultural, historical and contemporary contexts.

Image sources in the Combination Assignment should include a combinations of all points listed below:
1) representational (realistic) drawing from observation
2) abstraction and mark making
3) pop art styles and advertising
4) graphic design and or illustration drawing styles
5) drafted diagrams and or drawn images of objects, or machines, or architecture
6) drawing that interprets media imagery from television, movies, magazines and the internet (interpretation of lens based mediums such as photography, video, and film)
7) drawing styles and images from art history, or folk art or arts and crafts
8) drawing that present imagery and styles of drawing from non western cultures such as Asian, African, South American or Aboriginal cultures

The purpose of the studies is to assist you in the investigation of this assignment. The studies are not about making something small and then duplicating that small study at a large scale. Instead the studies and the larger work should feed off each other. During the process there should be a back and forth of working between the studies and the large work (especially at the beginning stages of the drawing). Studies may include manipulations of digital photos of the large work taken while in progress.

In general it is strongly recommended that you photograph the work in progress and periodically make some inexpensive prints at home to work on in order to consider all potential directions to develop the work. Experiment and investigate various options thoroughly with the studies and the large work.

Considerations

Avoid having every formal and conceptual component of your drawing pre-planned or “figured out” before you begin. This will eventually suffocate any desire to work, because it is almost impossible to pre-plan every step in the process and get positive results. If you are stuck with no ideas it is best to immediately start drawing with vague ideas and some random organic and geometric shapes such as in some of the examples posted below. Prepare yourself mentally for a process of risk, unexpected direction, layering, reworking, researching, making small preliminary works, applying criticism, and experimentation and you will have a very successful work or series of works.

Resources

John Cage and Leo Steinberg on Art of Robert Rauschenberg
PBS American Masters: Robert Rauschenberg
Ink Jet Image Transfer
YouTube Video on Ink Jet Transfer
Matthew Ritchie
Kojo Griffin
David Salle (contains adult content)
Jeff Koons (contains adult content)

Learning Objectives

Project Description

Create a complex composition that references and re-configures the “macro and micro” elements of Todd Hall in a new invented space. Incorporate 1-2 samples of linear perspective to create the illusion of deep space within your final drawing. Use charcoal media to produce a full range of light-dark value to illustrate light sources and model various surfaces of collaged elements.

Materials

Access to digital camera (phone fine), sketchbook, scissors, gluestick/tape, charcoal media, 18”x24” drawing paper. (OPTIONAL: Digital collage/app collage software)

Directions

This assignment must be completed in several stages. 

1. Collect at least 10 digital photos of interior spaces (floor to ceiling!) and 10 photos of small elements/fixtures from any space in the Todd building. Think about capturing the macro spaces (hallways & large interior spaces) & micro-elements (lights, faucets, pipes, etc…) you find in the building.
2. Filter your photographed elements and spaces down to a few choices. NOT ALL ELEMENTS HAVE TO BE USED!
3. Collage these photos in to a new composition—cut & glued photos OR digital collage is fine. NOTE: Collage elements can & should be resized, repeated “fused” with other elements to make the composition work. Negative spaces can be filled with found textures and gradients. When you arrive at a successful solution, print or photocopy your results to use as a reference.
4. Enlarge your sketch collage into a new drawing incorporates a range of value & emphasizes surface textures using charcoal as your primary drawing media.  REMEMBER: Your drawing paper should be proportionate to your collage. For example a 6”x 8” collage would = an 18”x 24” drawing. Tape the border of your paper evenly!

Examples

Learning Objectives:
Students will continue to develop techniques with the media and materials they have used over the course of the semester.  Students are encouraged to explore new combinations and methodology when using the media.

Materials:
White Paper (Minimum size is 12″ by 18″, Max is 18″ by 24″)
Charcoal
Graphite
Ink
Sharpie
Colored Pencil
Conte

Time:
3 Classes

Homework:
Work out sketches in your sketchbook

Info:
The goal in creating 5 new drawings in such a short amount of time is to encourage creative thinking and challenge preconceptions of media use.  I encourage you to combine, alter and/or completely use whatever media you choose “incorrectly”. Explore the possibilities of the media.  Each drawing should be rendered with attention to detail.  Craftsmanship is very important.  Think about composition and background; it’s usually not a good idea to simply make one up.  Think about where your toys are in space.  Don’t let them “float”.